Commodities: Is the boom over? Glencore’s IPO price questioned

The tumble comes as speculation mounts that the commodities boom may be ending.

Traders were reported as questioneing whether the £36bn flotation of commodity trading giant Glencore marked the top of the market.

The price of silver fared the worst, falling 6% to $37.84, its worst week in nearly three decades.

On The Telegraph soft commodities such as cocoa, coffee, sugar were also reported as taking a hit.

In New York, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil future dropped below $100 for the first time since tensions in the Middle East caused the oil price to hit $127 per barrel.

On The Telegraph comment boards ghostofbankwoe agrees that many commodities were undoubtedly a "bubble phenomenon".

"We were told that excess "money printing" by EU, US, UK etc would cause inflationary pressures. This could only account for 20-40% loss of value of a currency, and in the worst foreseeable scenario a loss of 50%. And indeed a quick calculation of global money supply will tell you that's it's nothing like that bad. If silver and gold were a hedge against inflation, they would have gone up by say 40%. In a disaster scenario, maybe 50% drop in value of a currency would imply a doubling ONLY of gold etc. ie 100%.